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[quote=Anonymous]I'll tell you what you might do (which bears no relation to my own experimental, ADHD approach in real life):

You are dealing with a lot of plants, so you need to get organized. Make a chart listing the plants in order of mature height, and note the mature width, color, bloom time, and shade tolerance. All available info on your purchase site.

For spacing, you need to know the mature size of the plant and those adjacent to it. Get yourself some graph paper and colored pencils and literally map it out. Keep in mind that natives are pretty resilient and so overcrowding them tends to be fine and keeps weeds at bay. Then again, if you space them too far, a lot of those will self-sew or spread, and so they fill in over the years. Expect year two to be your good year and make changes then if things didn't work.

Also pay attention to the heights of the varieties you get so you place the taller ones in good spots relative to the shape of the plot and effect you want, and note the bloom time so you have something blooming in different parts in all seasons. Finally think about color relative to bloom time and how you want it to look. But don't be too precise, because they won't grow according to your exact plan!

Be sure to create some natural paths if the plot is deep so you can tend to any plants that need it.

Many of these plants will spread if they are really happy; just remember that it is ok to pull some of it if it starts to take over in a few years. Just dig em up and give them to friends, neighbors, and local schools.

For your shadier areas, consider white wood aster. It blooms later than some of your others and tolerates some shade well.

For grasses, I'd consider Virginia wild rye and my personal favorite, wood oats. These will give you a lovely "movement" effect and some winter interest.

Other options that tolerate clay soil include: white turtlehead, bergamot, great blue lobelia, obedient plant, mountain mint (pictures are deceiving on this one -- the flowers are tiny and sites tend to give you extreme close ups; the overall affect of the plant is a white capped mountain literally covered with every variety of bee you'll ever see), goldenrod, lyre leafed sage (also a shorter plant and most of what you list are about the same height with might be kind of odd looking), field pussy toes (also short and very early bloom), and ironweed.

You might throw in some parsley and other members of the parsley family for caterpillar food.

Most important: don't be too aggressive in cleaning up the plot for winter -- the eggs will be laid among the debris and on overwintering stems, and diapause adults will be under the fallen leaves. No point in having the pollinator garden if you kill all the pollinator babies.

Have fun![/quote]

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